A mentioned object must be seen, ideally just before the line about it
The rule that turns 'X is mentioned, never shown' from a viewer complaint into a check you run on the transcript: every named thing gets a shot, placed just before or on the line.
MENTIONED OBJECT, the checklist 1. Read the cut as text and underline every concrete noun a viewer could expect to see: an object, a place, a food, a tool, a person named, a screen. 2. For each, answer: is it on screen within 3 seconds before the line, or during it? Write the shot and its time, or NOT SHOWN. 3. NOT SHOWN with footage available: add the shot just before the line. The viewer sees the bread, then hears about the bread; the reverse plays as a caption. 4. NOT SHOWN with no footage: cut the line, use another take if one exists, or generate a faceless clip of the object; never leave the line pointing at nothing. 5. Shown, but from another time or place: that is a miss too (see the cutaway rule); find the same-place shot or treat as NOT SHOWN. 6. Names: the first time a person is named, their face is on screen or has just been. Introduce before you refer. 7. Screens and documents: shown close enough to read the one word that matters, for at least 2 seconds. 8. Re-run the list after every re-cut; moving a scene moves the first mention.
In Claude Code, paste the prompt as a message, or run /video-edit which does this end to end.
Steps
- Run the check from the text export of the cut, before rendering. Ten nouns per minute of talk is normal.
- Fix in the cut script: one cover entry per NOT SHOWN noun. Render once.
- Keep the noun list; it is the shot list for the next day you film in that place.
Tips
- 'Just before' is the editor's tense. Object, then the line about it, reads as the speaker pointing at it; line, then object, reads as an illustration added later.
- This check is also the fastest way to find the gaps in a shoot: the nouns with no footage are what to film tomorrow.
| works with | Claude Code: Runs as a skill or a prompt in the terminal; can read your files and write the result. · By hand: No tool needed: a checklist or a technique. · CapCut / any editor: A manual recipe for any editor. |
| skill | npx skills add fortunto2/solo-factory/video-edit · source |
| cost | Free. No API, no key. |
| status | Unverified: written from the technique, not yet run end to end by us. |
| license | CC BY 4.0 for the text here; skills are MIT. |
| updated | 2026-11-01 |
| for agents | mentioned-object-must-be-seen-checklist.md |
Related
The cutaway rule: what is said, same place and time, never over moving lips
Three constraints for every cutaway in a talking film, and the agent prompt that applies them to a transcript. Kills what viewers read as broken: a picture from elsewhere, a face out of sync.
Cutaway matching: sentence to a literal visual, same place and time
A prompt that reads each sentence of a transcript and names the one picture that shows it, with the place and time it must come from, so the shot list is a list of things, not moods.
From a sentence to five search queries and one generation prompt
A prompt that turns each line needing a cutaway into five queries for your own footage or a stock site, ordered from literal to loose, plus one generation prompt as the fallback when nothing is found.
B-roll shot list from a transcript: the table to film or generate from
An agent prompt that reads a transcript and returns a shot table (timestamp, line, shot, source: have / film / generate) for a camera or a video model, grouped so each location is filmed once.
A contact sheet of every cutaway with its line under it
The one-page check that catches off-topic cutaways before anyone watches: every cutaway frame in a grid, its sentence under it. Measured once: 12 of 54 automatic cutaways were off topic.
The day as one text file: an agent reads the speech and proposes the story
The step before any timeline: the day's speech in shooting order, numbered by clip and sentence, read by an agent like a scriptwriter. It proposes story, scenes, hook and cutaways; you argue in text.